FEBRUARY 25: CLING AND CLEAVE

CLING AND CLEAVEBy: Darrelyn L. Tutt

"And Ruth said, 'Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there I will be buried: the Lord do so to me and more also, if ought but death part thee and me."Ruth 1:16-17------Ruth:A favored individual cast into the spiritual narrative of God's word, and placed beautifully into the lineage of Christ.A woman chosen, ordained, elected by God to carry out the redemptive blood line of Christ and bear the beloved title of Great-grandmother to King David.Ohhh ... and there's that other messy little detail:She was a Moabite.-----Hmmm ...Does this make sense?Does God seriously introduce a "Moabite woman" to be woven into the bloodline of Christ and think it's all going to turn out alright?Does God truly select an "ill-branded" people called the Moabites to play a pivotal role in the significant redemptive plan we call salvation?Does God know what He's doing?Does he remember that the notorious Balaam hails from here and that an illegitimate offspring (Moabites are Lot's lineage through incest,) runs through the blood line of Ruth? Does He forget that He had inscribed a "stay away" command for His people toward the Ammonites and Moabites (Deuteronomy 23:3)?Does God seriously favor a widowed Moabite named Ruth?-----Mmmm ...Something big is happening here.Don't miss it.God is revealing Himself to man:He's overpowering and overriding the legal system with the redemptive system,because He's powerful enough to do so.He's flexing His sovereign muscle and displaying Himself for who He is, revealing His glory, through grace to the face of man.And where the redemptive system comes in, the legal system is forced out.The larger wisdom of God will always prevail over the small minds of men,and He will reign.------Small wonder that the law-abiding elite folks called the Pharisees and Saducees couldn't get their minds around Christ. He was always working outside the box and outside their narrow system. Where they were busy exacting the arm of control through rules, regulations, ideologies, systems, and programs; God was elevating Himself above them and doing "His own" God thing.And He just kept at it ... and folks like Ruth were drawn to Him.Attaching themselves to Him.Clinging to Him.And streaming to Him.And He lovingly immersed them and folded them into His grace, not only receiving them, but provokingly placing them into the redemptive story of Christ.And God hasn't changed ... He's doing the same thing today,because He's just so big, and because He gets to.Oh for this glorious wondrous Christ and His plan called Redemption.-----Cast off the quizzical, critical gazes of the mystified and "dignified" and, utilizing the strategy of Ruth with Naomi, do the "clinging" thing. Cling to Christ,cleave to Christ ...and not even death will be able to separate you from Him.-------"My soul followeth hard after Thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me."Psalm 63:8